My mic keeps making thumping sounds.

Everyone is addressing technical issues, and it may be a perception issue.

Mics do not hear the way our ears do, mixers and recorders do not process the information the way our brains do, and interfaces and speakers are very imperfect reproductions of reality. By their very nature microphones attenuate and exaggerate in ways that those of us who do audio for a living automatically account for when we set things up. Speakers, even 5.1, provide a very artificial aural focus. As audio post designers/editors/performers we account for all of these things when we create, edit and mix sounds. We understand the concept of creating an artificial sonic reality.

Ironpony, despite many explanations, still insists on using "the real thing" to create his sounds; he just doesn't get that when creating sound FX and Foley you do not necessarily have to use the actual object or perform the actual motions seen on the screen

And using headphones exclusively to edit, monitor and mix doesn't help his situation at all.
 
Bob has two good points.

First off what you are hearing as a problem may actually be what it sounds like. People hear through the filter of their brain and almost nothing sounds like you think it does.

A big part of why you get all those "crazy sound guy" BTS clips of guys recording silly stuff that is going to be used for something else is that that silly thing sounds like what the audience thinks the other thing sounds like. The other part is because it's just so much fun!

But mostly it's the first part.
 
Well I've never heard this thumping sound in a movie before, even during wall banging scenes and scenarios that involves damaging the set. never heard this thump. So I feel that if I never heard it in a movie, than I may be doing something wrong. I don't have enough time to figure out how to fix the problem though. holding the mic further away only makes it sound too far away for some of these more quiet sounds. If I hand it off to the audio engineer, can he fix it?

I've been having trouble with sound lately. i can add some video and try youtube, or will that not be good enough quality to tell what the problems are?
 
Where is a clip of the sound in question? I understand people giving advice based on description.....but give us more than that. Let us hear it.

Sorry, but I will reserve my opinion until I have something to hear, otherwise I am guessing...just like everyone else. Which causes me a bit of concern, since we haven't heard the artifact in question. Kind of hard to identify an issue without hearing it, wouldn't you guys agree? Otherwise its a WAG.
 
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I've been having trouble uploading it, there is no sound at all when I do. What files does youtube take? Strange since youtube has worked before. Soundcloud I have been having trouble with as well but will keep trying.
 
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This video is a duplicate of a previously uploaded video.

Sorry about that.
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Message when clicking the link......
 
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K I've tried uploading to youtube four different ways and no sound. Sorry. Well I'm going to try one more time next week when I have the place to myself. whatever records is what I get. I'll do my best and send it off to the audio engineer I guess. Well I think the problem with the sound is basically there is just too much bass to it. way too much, hence the bass thumpy sound is similar to that you would get in very loud nightclub speakers. i don't get why though since my recordings are not near that powerful and blasting out large bass. and why only with the low sounds?
 
I just tried that and still no sound even though there is sound in the exported file I've made four times now. Why won't youtube accept it?
 
Well there is no sound track in that video. It's not that it doesn't play, it's not there. So I'm not sure how your listening to it but did you actually check THE file you have been uploading or are you just listening to it in a NLE?
Bottom line is that there is no audio track, the inspector lists the video track no audio tracks.
 
Dude that mic's bad... or your phantom power is bad. Get another mic and try it out... but my guess is the mic's blown out... or got wet, or something. Aside from what sounds like slamming car doors... all the other pops sound like toasted circuitry at the mic or the phantom source. The good news is you only have two things to check. This mystery should be solved in 30 seconds.
 
Okay thanks. But the mic works good on any other sound so far, so I don't think it's bad. The recordings are of running on carpet if that makes any difference, aside from the slamming sounds. But the mic works for people's voices well so I don't think it's blown out and it never got wet. I think I am just doing something wrong when it comes to low bass sounds.
 
ironpony said:
Okay thanks, that sounds like the problem. I am using the FR2-LE recorder though, and it gives a lot of phantom power. I have to be careful or it's too much it seems with that.
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You can't have "too much phantom power" - it's laid down in international specifications as 48V + 4V and 10mA.



ironpony said:
What do you mean by putting the -10db pad in?
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If the mic. is being acoustically overloaded the -10dB pad will reduce the sensitivity of the mic.



Your problem may be noise transmitted through the stand or up the cable - so use a shockmount and/or put the stand legs on foam and ave a loose loop in the cable and secure the end to the stand to prevent handling noise coming up the cable (I use Rycote S-series thin and flexible XLR tails for this).

I hope this helps.
 
How are you listening to the playback of your recordings where you hear the 'thumping'? Headphones?, speakers?, speakers with subwoofer? ... give us all the details about what playback setup are you using.
 
The door slam sounds quite realistic, and the noise could actually be the sound running on carpet makes - foam windshields often make that noise when they move - were you shaking about. I think we really need to see what you were doing with the mic. Shaking a mic in a basket windshield can occasionally creak when the gain is up high, and you get horrible bangs if you cause the elastic suspension to let the mic inside make contact with the housing. I don't hear any nasty mic problems at all from that clip - can we see the mic making these sounds - we'd be able to give a more definitive answer then?
 
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